Three courtyards – two houses – one association

“How to live together?” is the question we ask every time we design housing facilities. We see the state-of-the-art innovation in the design in the blending of housing types and social ways of life regarding age, origin and economic status. Thus the holistic approach of the large scale of the courtyard is the quality of the design, which needs no further huge gesture but merely a cautious elaboration.

For us it is “love at second sight” that brings out the effect of the courtyard and ensures a durable sustainability. This is supported by the location near to the Partnachplatz underground station, the Westpark and the River Isar.

An autonomous proportionality is achieved by the mainly four-storey height, large-format windows and a stucco façade. We see this in the sense of quotations and references that create a connection to Munich and to the late 19th Century residential districts and form recognisable addresses.

An expression of modesty of design elements – well-known elements specifically combined – is paired with a high quality of living: the apartments get generous, well-proportioned room situations and an arrangement of the open spaces towards the courtyards as a “green room”. The representative entrances and staircases are almost all arranged economically in threes or fours. Every staircase leads to a mixture of living forms, and apartments situated on top of each other are executed identically for economic reasons.

Urban construction + inclusion

All apartments are barrier-free. The houses are connected by a clearly arranged, barrier-free, common underground garage for cars and bikes. The parking spaces and storerooms are allocated to the house entrances. Access to the garage for bikes is via a lift, which also provides barrier-free access to the garage for the building’s inhabitants. The garage is reached from Klingerstrasse, which means that the courtyards remains traffic-free.

Energy concept, thermal insulation

The starting point for us to achieve the EnEV Standard is an ecological heating system (a heating plant with renewable raw materials or district heating), combined with an ecologically, properly insulated façade and low-temperature underfloor heating. This should be supplemented by an appropriate technology – not as an end in itself – with a decentralised ventilation system via the bathrooms and back-flow via the individual rooms and the façade, as well as an optimization of savings in fresh water. The back-flow of extracted air takes place by means of window rebate ventilators.

Summer heat insulation will be provided and accounted for by self-shading, storage mass, window area proportion and external textile solar protection by means of thermic simulation. The building materials are chosen according to an ecological overall view in the building’s lifecycle.

Open space

The succinct urban figure opens up free spaces that form independent, high-quality areas of strong character. At the same time, the open spaces encourage a link to the environment.

The inner courtyard serves as a communal green space with many different opportunities for play and leisure for all occupants. The main connections through the residential block cross the large meadow area. Groups of trees cast shade that structures the courtyard for games and leisure. In the treatment of surfaces, emphasis was placed on keeping ground sealing as low as possible, and roof areas are extensively greened to retain precipitation.

Project data